ASIC fines Morgan Stanley $123,750

Morgan Stanley has paid a $123,750 penalty fee to ASIC after being issued an infringement notice by the Markets Disciplinary Panel.

The notice was issued in relation to account reconciliation rules, which the Markets Disciplinary Panel (MDP) had reasonable grounds to believe had been violated by Morgan Stanley.

The MDP listed several breaches of the account reconciliation rules made by Morgan Stanley, including failure to provide ASIC with monthly reconciliations between September 2013 and May 2015, and failure to supply ASIC with annual declarations in relation to its 2013 and 2014 financial years.

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The cumulative total of the penalties issued by the MDP should have come to $230,000, though the MDP chose to modify the total penalty “having regard to the totality of the conduct, and other relevant factors, including Morgan Stanley's exemplary compliance record to date”.

“The MDP considered it appropriate in this matter, to adjust the total sum of the separate penalties in respect of Contraventions 2 to 29 and 32 to 35 as set out above, to ensure that the final penalty was just, and appropriate and not excessive,” the Panel explained in the notice it issued.